Adam One, the kindly leader of the God's Gardeners - a religion devoted to the melding of science and religion, the preservation of all species, the tending of the Earth, and the cultivation of bees and organic crops on flat rooftops - has long predicted the Waterless Flood. Now it has occurred, obliterating most human life. Two women have avoided it: the young trapeze-dancer, Ren, locked into the high-end sex club, Scales and Tails; and former SecretBurgers meat-slinger turned Gardener, Toby, barricaded into the ...
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Adam One, the kindly leader of the God's Gardeners - a religion devoted to the melding of science and religion, the preservation of all species, the tending of the Earth, and the cultivation of bees and organic crops on flat rooftops - has long predicted the Waterless Flood. Now it has occurred, obliterating most human life. Two women have avoided it: the young trapeze-dancer, Ren, locked into the high-end sex club, Scales and Tails; and former SecretBurgers meat-slinger turned Gardener, Toby, barricaded into the luxurious AnooYoo Spa, where many of the treatments are edible. Have others survived? Ren's bioartist friend Amanda, or the MaddAddam eco-fighters? Ren's one-time teenage lover, Jimmy? Or the murderous Painballers, survivors of the mutual-elimination Painball prison? Not to mention the CorpSeCorps, the shadowy and corrupt policing force of the ruling powers Meanwhile, in the natural world, gene-spliced life forms are proliferating: the lion/lamb blends, the Mo'hair sheep with human hair, the pigs with human brain tissue. As Adam One and his intrepid hemp-clad band make their way through a ruined world, singing their devotional hymns and faithful to their creed and to their Saints - Saint Francis Assisi, Saint Rachel Carson, and Saint Al Gore among them - what odds for Ren and Toby, and for the human race? By turns dark, tender, violent, thoughtful and uneasily hilarious, The Year of the Flood is Atwood at her most effective.
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Add this copy of The Year of the Flood to cart. $31.71, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2009 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.
Add this copy of The Year of the Flood to cart. $31.71, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2009 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.
Thank you for offering this must read 2nd part of the Maddadam Trilogy. The distopian trilogy is carefully rendered via Atwood's exquiste mind. I love the songs and the introduction of the new characters. May the trilogy continue to be read for eons.
Ellyb
Aug 2, 2010
Up there with her best
In 'The Year of the Flood," Margaret Atwood revisits the world she built in Oryx and Crake. This time, however, we see the action through the point of view of two women with passing ties to the ridiculed 'God's Gardeners' group from the first novel. Ren and Toby, having survived the "waterless flood" by being barricaded within a sex-club and a spa, respectively, are two strong individuals who find themselves physically isolated and completely in the dark as to who else has survived. With no idea whether their friends and loved ones are alive, they must decide what course to take; stay hidden, alone, and safe, or venture out to see what can be salvaged of the world.
Far from being a novel of desperation, this narrative shift results in a much different tone from Oryx and Crake, with more hope, more tenderness, and more optimistic protagonists. There are still incredibly disturbing elements, but the novel stubbornly clings to the idea that even in the darkest hour after a catastrophe, some element of human kindness and ingenuity will remain intact.
I really enjoyed 'The Year of the Flood,' as I do most of Atwood's works; her narrative voice is rich and intelligent, and her characters are always well developed and believable.
